South Korea upgraded to Aa3 by Moody’s

The credit rating improvement lifts Korea to the same level as Japan and China.

Moody’s lifts South Korea’s credit rating to the same level as Japan and China (Photononstop)

Amid the recent downgrades to European sovereign credits, South Korea’s resilience to global headwinds is allowing Asia’s fourth biggest economy to defy the trend. Yesterday, Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the country’s government bond rating one notch to Aa3 from A1, with a stable outlook.

The agency justified its action by pointing to Korea’s strong fiscal position, its economic strength, a decline in its banking sector’s external vulnerability, and the fact that there has been no...